Thursday, 12 May 2016

A look inside our nursery

One of the most exciting things about moving into our new house was making a nursery for tiny man. We moved out of our flat - the place he came home to after being born - when he was about five months' old, so he'd never slept in his own room before. This was our chance to make a lovely place for tiny man to play, be changed, store all of his toys and clothes - oh, and, hopefully sleep through the night one day too...

Only one problem: the budget. Unlike the multi-gazillion-pound monochrome nurseries I oggled over on Instagram, we'd just moved house so.... the budget wasn't big..

Here's what we did - a mixture of lovely-looking, practical and functional nursery furniture, Ikea hacks and DIY accessories.

First up, storage. We needed a big cupboard to fill with tiny man's clothes, bedding, nappies, shoes, blankets, and more. But so many that I saw online were so dark and overbearing that they'd suck the light out of a room. Then we found Mothercare's Lulworth wardrobe - it's white and oak effect, has loads of space, but light and airy too. It has plenty of hanging space, a shelf, and two drawers, and there's a matching unit and cot if you're looking for those. Bonus points: the store's furniture delivery was so easy (nice time slots, called 20 minutes' before arrival..) Sometimes that makes a big difference!

On the walls, my mum embroidered tiny man this amazing sampler - available from Jolly Red - with his birth date and name. We added a string of photos underneath - it's just above the changing mat so the pics are a useful distraction during the more, uh, boisterous nappy changes. The hot air balloon wall stickers are from Mamas & Papas and I love that they're so easily removable - this is the third wall I tried them on..

I did splurge on Anthropologie door knobs - the zebras and elephants above. But whilst they look nice, they're always breaking - spinning around their screw, two have fallen off entirely, and not very safe. So I recommend buying from anywhere but there!

I totally love this twig branch shelf - also from Mothercare's Tusk range - which is just waiting to go up on the wall (not too high, so tiny man can grab books all day long.)

Lastly, our changing table is an old repurposed Ikea dresser - but to jazz up its boringness, we added these gorgeous Sass & Belle (amazing place for accessories) chevron knobs in three different colours. What have you done with your babies' nurseries? Please share below!Thanks to Mothercare, Sass & Belle and Not On the High Street for sending nursery review items. Rest assured we're seriously gobby and only rave about things we love.